Hay Festival Aarhus 2017

Dates:

26 Oct 2017 - 29 Oct 2017

Location:

Aarhus

British Council is delighted to be official supporters of Aarhus 2017 which is joining forces with the Hay Festival to present the first International Children’s Literature Festival in Denmark. 39 of the best European children’s authors under 40 have been invited to write new works based on the theme ‘journey’ and two new anthologies have been produced, edited by Daniel Hahn, called Odyssey and Quest.

The new library in Aarhus at Dokk1 is the natural heart of the event where children, parents and teachers will experience the Festival in this inspiring and playful environment. The International Children’s Literature Festival will offer memorable experiences for children of all ages as well as meaningful debates and talks for professionals and everyone interested in the magical world created in literature for children and young adults.

‘We have worked with Hay Festival supporting their programme of international festivals for many years and were delighted to have the opportunity to work with them on the new children’s festival in Aarhus. We were very pleased to support the Danish-Polish children’s illustrator Kamila Slocinska as British Council Illustrator in Residence at Hay Festival this year, and are looking forward to her return to her home city of Aarhus for the festival.

‘It is great to see a festival that will help to raise the profile of writing and illustration for children generally and create an international platform for children’s writers and illustrators to share their work.

‘It aligns perfectly with our own British Council Literature focus for the next two to three years on showcasing the work of UK children’s writers and illustrators. By supporting Aarhus 2017 and Hay Literature Festival, we hope to inspire more children to explore works coming from different cultures and open their imaginations to new ideas.’

Read our Q&A with Kamila Slocinska, an illustrator from Aarhus who was the British Council Illustrator in Residence at Hay Festival in Wales this year. Read our illustrated blog with Kamila here.

Listen to the podcast with Juliana Engberg, creative director of Aarhus 2017, interviewed by Georgina Godwin presenter of the British Council Arts podcast along with writer Sarah Crossan and editor Daniel Hahn.

Find out more information about the Aarhus project on the Hay Festival website here.

Related links:

Related blog posts:

In this podcast, recorded at the Hay Festival 2017, we look at the importance of literature and books for young people: and we ask what is the value for younger readers of literature in translation and why is it important to discover stories from other countries?

A podcast round up from our Illustrator in Residence at Hay Festival in Wales, Kamila Slocinska. Kamila spent a week at the Festival being inspired by her surroundings. Listen to the podcast to find out more.

This year the Hay Festival Wales welcomes Kamila Slocinska from Aarhus, Denmark, as British Council Illustrator in Residence. We asked her some questions about her work, what she hopes to experience during her 5 days in Hay and about the literary scene in Denmark.